The arrogance of (waning) power

For decades, Maryland has been essentially a one-party state, with the Democrats having a lock on statewide office. In 2002, the Republicans finally won the gubernatorial race. This year, they have realistic hopes of repeating that feat and picking up a Senate seat.

The Democrats are desperate to avoid those outcomes. I have previously discussed some of the tactics they are employing to that end — allowing all felons to vote and trying to prevent a ruling on the gay marriage issue before election day.

With their latest ploy, the Dems sink even lower. They have pushed through the state legislature — which they still dominate — a bill allowing voting to take place for five days before election daty, but only at selected polling stations mostly located in Democratic strongholds. To accomplish this, they stripped the legislation of provisions that would have permitted Republicans an equal role in deciding where to place the early-polling stations and that would have required that the stations’ locations be geographically central. The conference committee that wrote the bill was composed of six Democrats and zero Republicans. What’s next, a ban on Republican poll watchers?

The Washington Post editorial page correctly observes that the Democrats have “sacrificed fairness to partisan advantage.” In doing so, they have “taint[ed] the election even before it occurs.” The Post predicts that “with such arrogance and abuse, the Demcorats will only erode their majority in Maryland.”